Ronaldo revels in Portugal late show

• Cristiano Ronaldo describes Portugal as "deserved winners" against Denmark
• The forward admits "it is a question of time" before Portugal adapt to their new system
• Denmark coach Morten Olsen criticises his side for not holding on for a point
• Lars Jacobsen says the Danish players are "very disappointed and frustrated"
• Next games: Serbia v Denmark, Portugal v Armenia (14 November)

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal forward
You need a bit of intelligence in your movements, and I know Quaresma and knew more or less where he would put the ball, so I moved towards the near post. Because they're all very tall players – and when it's a hard cross it's very difficult to win it in the air – I guessed the near post and I did what I had to do, which was trying to put the ball in the net. I'm very happy for the work the team put in during the 90 minutes. We were deserved winners because we created more chances. The team is to be congratulated.

We must always believe. I always believe until the last minute because I know that some time or other the ball will come, and I need to be there and try to do my best, which is score goals if they give me the chance. Obviously the coach has been doing a great job – he's a great man, a great coach and he passed on that confidence to us at half-time so we are very happy with him.
 
We're not thinking about the past in our national team any more. That's a page we're already finished with. We need to think about the present, and the present is good. The team did well, there were a lot of changes and a different system, so it's a question of time until we can adapt. I think we gave a good answer today after the match against France [a 2-1 friendly defeat on 11 October]. I think we were deserved winners.

Ricardo Carvalho, Portugal defender
You always expect Cristiano to score goals. He had one earlier chance, then with his second chance he gets a goal. He is an unbelievable player for us. We are so happy because this win is so important for Portugal. Cristiano is always there waiting for a cross and he scored a great goal. We now have more confidence and we have to improve our game and try to win the next match.

Fernando Santos, Portugal coach
We know Denmark are a very strong team. They probably saw us against France and changed their formation to 4-4-2 instead of their usual 4-3-3 because of this. The first half was even, but after the break we altered the position of our full-backs to push them further forward and press higher which worked well. We were the better team in the second half and created the biggest chances. Cristiano Ronaldo is Cristiano Ronaldo. He is a winner. 

Morten Olsen, Denmark coach
Today was just not good enough. It is extremely unprofessional to lose in the dying seconds. It was a typical 0-0, which would have been a fair result. A draw here would have been a fantastic result for us against one of our direct opponents. In injury time you have to shut up shop and prevent them crossing the ball. That it was a god-like cross is another story. Some of our players performed below par today. It is not a 19-year-old player [Pierre Højbjerg] who should dictate our play. He needs help from more experienced team-mates, but he did not get that today. In the first half we went very close but hit the post. Our style was more direct today because I felt we needed more width. That is why we changed our formation.

Lars Jacobsen, Denmark defender
You can imagine how it is in the dressing room right now. We've got a lot of players who are very disappointed and frustrated, but that's life. We tried to follow the game plan, but I have to admit that we didn't play our best and the ball didn't behave as we wanted it to all the way through. It's a game that we have to kill and be satisfied with a point and certainly not concede a goal four minutes into added time – that's not good enough. When you lose a game so late, all your thoughts are negative. We will analyse the game when we meet again, but right now it's pretty disappointing.